Some thoughts from a Professor of Educational Leadership and management @ Flinders University

Re-turn-ing with Alaska

Waiting in the airport for the first of 3 flights today (Alaska, Vancouver, Adelaide), 20 hours+ in planes!!

In one sense I am ‘leaving’ Alaska, and ‘going to’ Australia. Physically, I trust this to be so.

Another perspective might suggest that I am travelling ‘differently’, ’embodying’ conversations and images of the landscape, and the ‘look in the eyes’ of the many people I have met.

Who would have thought I would encounter the speechlessness of 4 men (from USA, Paraguay, France, Australia) from the conference I attended, watching a glacier break off after announcing these actions with a ‘booming ‘ sound. A speechless experience.

Who could have foreseen my ‘final’ dia-logue with two younger British academics, each engaged in, and wrestling with, deepening their transformative practices with those they find themselves serving. Claire, Alex – u were my capstone! You brought me back to the need for a ‘hope-filled’ agenda. While we see deficits, we are in this ‘game’ to, as Claire says, “inspire change”.

To relate is to be in dia-logue. Our dia-logue is indeed the ‘word’ BETWEEN ‘us’.